JONATHAN CAHN: AMERICA'S FALSE PROPHET OF THE 9 HARBINGERS
Jonathan Cahn's 9 harbingers were after-the-fact analysis or opinions of his own personal doing. They are not really prophecies or special revelations given to him by God's Spirit which he falsely claims. THE HARBINGER WAS A CONCEPT WHICH MR. CAHN DEVELOPED OVER A PERIOD OF 5 OR MORE YEARS WHILE MAKING MULTIPLE VISITS TO GROUND ZERO IN SEARCH OF HARBINGERS. IT WAS PREACHED BY HIM TO HIS CONGREGATION IN A FORM OF SERIES BEFORE FINALLY BEING PUBLISHED. I WAS THERE DURING THOSE YEARS TO WITNESS FIRST HAND IT'S EVOLUTION. It was all an elaborate fabrication based on an application of eisegisis of Isaiah 9:10, and he successfully duped millions of Christians around the world and made a fortune in the process together with his team of religious cronies. It is a literary work based on EISEGESIS. What do I mean by that? Eisegesis involves 1) imagination: what ideas do I want to present? 2) exploration: what Scripture passage seems to fit with my ideas? and 3) application: what does my idea mean? In eisegesis there is no cross-referencing with related passages of scripture, and no real desire to understand the actual meaning of the sacred text as the biblical author originally intended for his readers. Scripture serves only as a prop to the interpreter’s idea.
I read the book myself and I submit my findings. EXAMINE THE EVIDENCE BELOW FOR YOURSELF:
THE HARBINGER'S 10 FATAL FLAWS
1. Hedge of protection removed/breach: pure speculation-we don't know if there is or ever has been a hedge of protection. 9/11 was not the first attack on U.S. soil, it was not a military breach, and it did not weaken America's defenses in any way.
2. The terrorist: The Assyrians were hardly the first one to use terror tactics-it is just a way to instill fear. The 9/11 hijackers were not Assyrians (which is still an ethnic group that is mostly Christian).In the Harbinger page 40 Mr. Cahn CLEARLY IMPLIES that the Ancient Assyrians were the BLOODLINE ANCESTORS of the 19 hijackers! What a blunder. THE ORIGINS OF THE 19 HIJACKERS ARE AS FOLLOW: 15 FROM SAUDI ARABIA, 2 FROM UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, 1 FROM EGYPT, & 1 FROM LEBANON(cf with wikipedia.com).
3. The fallen bricks: in Israel, fallen bricks meant the nation was leveled by the attacks. On 9/11 there were just a few square blocks of one city. In Israel, most buildings were made of bricks, while in America bricks were only incidental with no significance.
4. The tower: Completely manufactured only using the Septuagint translation, not the Hebrew(MASORETIC TEXT). If one uses the Septuagint then both the sycamore and cedar harbingers disappear. HISTORICAL FACTS REVEAL THE SEPTUAGINT VERSION IS NOT A UNIFORM AND CONSISTENT TRANSLATION. It was done by many different hands whose skills, and even philosophy of translating varied considerably. These transmission errors found in the Septuagint include the addition of words to create longer versions of some texts, most notably parts of the book of Jeremiah, and other variants that were the result of misunderstanding or misinterpreting a Hebrew word or phrase.
5. THE GAZIT STONE: Israel rebuilt using gazit (which is just quarried stone), didn't just lay a gazit cornerstone-they replaced the bricks. In America there was only a single cut cornerstone that ended up not even being used at all.
The buildings in Israel were constructed of bricks and easily destroyed when the Assyrians attacked. Israel would rebuild with much stronger quarried stone (gazit). When the tower was to be rebuilt at Ground Zero, a single quarried stone was to be placed as a cornerstone--but even that was later moved and never became a part of the new structure.
6. The sycamore: The sycamore of Israel (fig-mulberry) and that in America are two completely different kinds of trees. In Israel these fig-mulberry trees were cut down by the Assyrians all across the country. In America a single tree (that was not a fig-mulberry) just fell because of the falling buildings.
This is yet another forced parallel that does not withstand closer examination. First, the sycamore (fig-mulberry) of ancient Israel and the American sycamore are two completely different trees that are unrelated in any way. They are not the same species ( Ficus sycomorus vs. Platanus occidentalis ) . They are not in the same genus ( Ficus vs. Plantanus ), nor even in the same family ( Moraceae vs. Platanaceae ). In spite of this, the author tries to make the connection on a linguistic basis. . . .
The tree in Israel is a fruit-bearing tree, with the English translation ultimately coming from the Greek for "fig-mulberry" which is sycomoros . However, this tree is shaqam in Hebrew. So it is not legitimate to claim that this tree was a "sycamore" to the ancient Israelites, who lived long before the influence of the Greek Empire. It was a fig-mulberry--it was a shaqam to them.
In contrast, the American sycamore, as stated before, is not botanically related in any way to the fig-mulberry. There is no semantic connection. Of course, both trees carry the same name--but this is true only for English-speakers , not for Hebrew-speakers.
7. The erez: The cedar of Lebanon in Israel, but a Norway spruce in America-two completely different kinds of trees. In Israel, cedars were much stronger and much more valuable trees to be used in many different ways. But in America a single symbolic tree, that is not necessarily stronger than the tree it replaced.
Cahn's reasoning reveals that he is depending on the taxonomic classification system to make his case. The taxonomic system is based on a hierarchy of seven ranks for classifying all living things on earth.
The first problem with appealing to this classification system is that it is based exclusively on evolutionary theory. In addition, as evolutionary theory evolves, so does the classification system itself, and it can change significantly over time. . . .
The Norway spruce planted at Ground Zero is biblically a different kind of tree than the cedars of Lebanon in Isaiah:9:10. Although the Bible is not a scientific textbook, it is accurate in those matters of science about which it speaks. Consequently, based on the authority of the Word of God there is no amazing coincidence. There is no match. There is no parallel. And there is no harbinger.
8. The utterance: In Israel there was a defiant spirit directed toward the Assyrians and God, ignoring God's direct warnings by the prophets he had sent over and over to his chosen people. In America there was no intentional, prideful, arrogant defiance of God.
9. The vow: In neither case was the statement "we will rebuild" a biblical vow, it was just a statement. Beyond that, how many ways can someone say "we will rebuild?" And how many Bible verses talk about rebuilding? It is no big coincidence that Isaiah 9:10 was used (although wrongly) because what other verses could be used if someone wanted to give hope from the Bible concerning an attack that destroyed buildings? It is not like they just picked one out of 30,000 verses as Cahn says-it is basically one out of one. There is no mystery in that.
10. The Shemitah: This was only for Israel and God wiped out the country after they failed to observe the Sabbath year for almost 500 years. America is not obligated to this and what has happened in America is not the tiniest fraction of what happened to Israel. It is not even remotely close, this is most half of the book, but it is elaborately manufactured out of nothing. The Shemitah/Sabbatical Years was STRICTLY GIVEN TO THE NATION OF ISRAEL UNDER THE MOSAIC COVENANT AND TO NO OTHER NATION IN HUMAN HISTORY. In the Harbinger page 159 Jonathan Cahn claims that the Shemitah was given to America as a sign. NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH! There is absolutely no SCRIPTURAL BASIS from Genesis to Revelation which he fails to provide to validate his claims.
Cahn determines that this text in Isaiah contains a mysterious prophecy directed not to ancient Israel but to modern America. At this point the author massages /MANIPULATES Scripture, American history and current events in an attempt to prove that God's judgment on the United States has been hiding in these verses from the day they were given by Isaiah, but have now been unlocked by the careful investigation of Cahn. (IN OTHER WORDS MR. CAHN HAD TO PERFORM THEOLOGICAL GYMNASTICS BEYOND OLYMPIC PROPORTIONS IN ORDER TO ACCOMPLISH THIS FEAT). Nothing could be further from the truth and, even more importantly, once someone decides they can cherry-pick verses at will, change the meaning of these texts to fit his theories and use random hermeneutical methods, anything can be "proven." However, very few people will recognize what Cahn has done, and fewer still will do the hard work of investigating his interpretations.
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